Ex-Atty Not Covered In $750K Law Firm Purchase Dispute

By Hope Patti

An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a disbarred attorney, who is currently serving a 90-month sentence for embezzling funds from his clients and law firm, in an underlying suit claiming he owes more than $750,000 for the purchase of a firm, an Illinois federal court ruled.

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AGs Urge Congress To Reject Trump's Ban On State AI Laws

By Rachel Riley

Attorneys general from 32 states are urging Congress to preserve their ability to pass laws regulating artificial intelligence, contending that the Trump administration's renewed proposal to insert a moratorium into a federal spending bill would leave states powerless in the face of AI-powered scams, harmful chatbot hallucinations and other emerging dangers.

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GTCR Drops FTC Constitutional Challenge Over Merger Case

By Matthew Perlman

GTCR BC Holdings LLC has agreed to dismiss its constitutional claims against the Federal Trade Commission after enforcers dropped their case challenging the private equity firm's $627 million purchase of medical device coatings company Surmodics Inc.

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21 AGs Sue USDA Over SNAP Rollbacks For Permanent Residents

By Ben Adlin

Twenty states and the District of Columbia sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday over new agency guidance barring certain categories of permanent residents from receiving federal food assistance benefits.

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Ill. Judge Trims DraftKings Sports Betting Promos Suit

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge refused to dismiss outright a proposed class action claiming that DraftKings's advertisements fuel gambling addiction, but trimmed a few claims from the suit, finding several of the lead plaintiffs failed to specify when they saw the ads in question.

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Abbott Accused Of Miscalculating Workers' Overtime

By Irene Spezzamonte

Abbott Laboratories miscalculated employees' overtime by failing to include periodic award pay in the regular rate of pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week, a former employee said in a proposed collective action in Illinois federal court.

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Health Plans Defend Renewed Biogen MS Drug Scheme Suit

By Lauraann Wood

Health plans claiming Biogen Inc. illegally stifled competition for its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera have said an Illinois federal judge should let their latest complaint proceed to discovery because it fixes earlier pleading deficiencies and better outlines the drugmaker's allegedly anticompetitive scheme.

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3rd Circ. Says Habba Barred From Serving As Acting US Atty

By Carla Baranauckas

President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer cannot serve as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, the Third Circuit ruled Monday in a precedential opinion holding that her appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and undermined the constitutional safeguards of Senate confirmation.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court saw a slate of corporate law clashes this past week, from fast-moving injunction fights in consumer product and real estate markets to multibillion-dollar oversight claims against crypto executives and fresh battles over control for two sports teams.

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Clifford Chance Hires Another Day Pitney Energy Expert In DC

By Jack Rodgers

A little less than a year after joining Day Pitney LLP's energy practice, an attorney who moved there alongside a longtime colleague has followed him to a new firm once more, joining Clifford Chance's energy regulatory and markets practice as a counsel, the firm announced Monday.

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Calif. Ban On Fee-Sharing With 'Alternative' Firms Challenged

By Jack Karp

A new law barring California lawyers and firms from sharing fees with out-of-state law firms owned by nonlawyers is unconstitutional and will harm the state's mass tort lawyers and their clients, according to a lawsuit filed last week.

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What MDL Judges Can Get Done With A New Civil Rule

By Cara Salvatore

As the first federal procedure rule geared toward multidistrict litigation goes into effect, judges will have a new buffet of best practices to guide them, but little in the way of hand-tying mandates.

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4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In November

By Julie Manganis

A judge dismissed a flurry of proposed class actions alleging retailers flouted a Massachusetts law requiring that job applications include a notice of the state's ban on lie detectors, while a personal injury law firm couldn't escape a former associate's suit over its unilateral decision to eliminate commissions for cases he brought to the firm, among notable state court decisions in November.

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Judge-Shopping Sanctions Order Must Stand, 11th Circ. Told

By Ryan Boysen

The Alabama federal judges who sanctioned a trio of civil rights attorneys for allegedly judge shopping are defending that outcome, telling the Eleventh Circuit the controversial process was above board and rejecting the "scheming" attorneys' claims that they simply wanted to ensure they received a randomly assigned judge.

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